Jayd

Yes! I've been using it with Konstanten as SC Skald. Empower with Sasha's Singing Scimitar, then swap to Blightheart. See the phrases accumulate as Eld Nary does what it does. Konstanten doesn't have...ideal Chanter stats but he does have a good chunk of Might, so he doesn't struggle to kill with Eld Nary and Seven Nights when he can hit with them. As a Skald, he can spam offensive invocations like crazy. I supposed an optimised Skald would do better focused on melee crits but this is a good substitute if you want them on the backline.

The fun and longevity in this game is constantly starting over to try new builds - at least for me I have almost 1000 hours and have only rolled credits once. Would encourage you to embrace that if you can. If this is to be your only playthrough, I would focus pretty singlemindedly on what you find most satisfying to play (combat and roleplay) and make the rest fit into place. This isn't the type of game where your class choice is going to be so weak as to lock you out of content if you're using all the tools the game gives you. So if finishing the content is your concern (as opposed to being the strongest character possible) I wouldn't worry about it. I believe that Wizards have more reactivity than Ciphers, especially because of the Forgotten Sanctum DLC, but I've never played a Cipher myself. I've never bothered doing a megaboss myself just because I kinda loathe that kind of encounter design (radically different parameters to normal encounters) but if you're using a party I'm sure you will be able to figure out strategies for them. It's more about executing specific strategies than having characters "strong" enough to beat them toe to toe. With party options, you will be able to find such a strategy. Hope this helps somewhat.

I've enjoyed Beastmaster Shifter for a couple of playthroughs! A nice tech is Scordeo's Trophy with Strategic Blitz. With Gunner+Driving Flight you can get 4+ stacks of Strategic Blitz in a heartbeat and then shift without needing to wait for reload. Massive attack speed increase. This works on any Shifter build, but Beastmaster makes the most of it. I'm currently running a Shifter/Berserker (a more min-maxed version of the last Tempest build I posted here a while back) and so far I think it's stronger than the Beastmaster (though can't say definitively yet). I've also played a Helwalker/Shifter and that was pretty crazy, but most of the damage ended up coming from spells so it'd have been better as an Ancient. I tried a Trickster up to maybe level 11 but it wasn't as exciting as I was hoping...maybe when it gets deathblows it'd knock my socks off? @theleereading about your disruptor theurge build in your guide, I want to see if the current Tempest can get in on some of those shenanigans late-game with Slayer's Claw giving it Energized. Those pulsing Druid spells interrupting on crits sounds like a great time!

Limiting what an individual character can do has important design implications beyond encouraging cooperation. You can have more interesting and fantasy-fulfilling skills and powers when the designers know easily what other skills can or can't be mixed. That principle is why the craziest skills in POE2 are limited to single-class characters. As soon as you allow players to mix and match you dramatically increase their ability to break the game, which forces the developers to be more conservative when designing skills. POE2's multiclassing, to me, is just the right sweet spot between player creativity and structure. I don't expect them to actually keep classes in Avowed, but I really, really would like them to.

Very exciting! I really hope there will be a class system. Skyrim won't let me be a druid so do the right thing with this! DnD-like classes are well established in Eora with plenty of associated lore.

@Kaylon @Boeroer Turns out Harley's damage bonus applies to every single damaging spell I have on this Druid: Insect Swarm, Maggots, Plague, Relentless, Nature's Terror, and Venombloom. The bonus shows up right in the tooltip. They also get +5 accuracy from Acina's Tricorn. Funny enough, I don't see the damage bonus listed on Scordeo's Trophy. Can you confirm that it actually effects ranged weapons like it says? I also don't see the +3 to accuracy anywhere (neither spells nor weapons).

New Beastmaster flex. Gonna have to post this build before I pretend to stop playing this game again.

Not sure I understand. Does the 10% dmg get added once your character is a certain range away from the enemy experiencing the DoT, or does the bonus apply to all DoTs unconditionally for some reason?

I'm currently using Battlemage Aloth, casting Ryngrim's Enervating Terror every fight. It makes for very effective tanking and he gets many disengagement attacks on terrified enemies trying to run away. Defender Stance is always on cuz his engagement sucks otherwise. Question: does the upgrade for Guardian Stance only add a prone to the attack and nothing else? I was thinking of taking it but there's not much point in just proning a terrified enemy.

Really wish I knew this with my Tempest

I vaguely remember testing Spidersilk and finding that they had no effect. I think it was just that it didn't change the tooltip numbers (Spine does).

Sorry, for some reason I missed that this thread got responses. It turned out all I had to do was load my other saved games (where I had the game finished already) and I automatically re-unlocked the achievements. Odd but it worked out in the end.

This might be the crux of the matter. I've never used a Ranger as a backline sniper, sending the AC off alone as early as possible. But doing that with any character isn't easier. A rogue, for example, needs to lean on Escape to do that - your AC can lean on Master's Call. Of course no one ever told you that this is how ACs are "supposed to be used". And leaving it in the backline for "half of the combat" is definitely not the only other option. You can use your AC to flank or engage enemies who aren't out in Timbuktu. There are plenty of important squishies to kill that don't require your animal to be out in no-man's land. And Rangers even make good tank killers because of their accuracy and cleanse. If you really want your Ranger to be dedicated only to sniping backliners, pick Ghost Heart. Animal companion-focused abilities use the AC's own action and recovery, not the Rangers. That applies to Play Dead and I would think Bonded Fury as well. Your AC can use them even while the Ranger is in recovery or CC'd. Think of Play Dead more as a powerful self-heal and aggro reset for the companion itself rather than a healing spell for the Ranger. Something closer to giving your AC Unbending when it comes to logistics of use. It's just that you share resources. All tier-2 inspirations is nothing to scoff at and it seems kinda unfair to focus on the two least useful (not useless) ones and ignore the other 4 to make your point. That said I agree with your point about heavy resource strain.

I almost always take both Storm and Plague and often cast both in an encounter. I highly recommend taking both! The relation between changing stats and ongoing effects and spells is a bit weird. I asked about it in a thread here and you can read through the replies. Nutshell: damage always actively scales with might/power level (even on previously applied DoT effects like Plague), but AoE and duration are set at cast time.

As a serial Druid player: Plague doesn't have a poison keyword but it doesn't work against poison-immune enemies (as Boeroer noted, the description mentions venomous insects). Insect Swarm works on everything (I guess these bugs only bite). I think it should be safe to include spells that go through multiple attack resolutions for a DoT build on a case-by-case basis if only to make sure you include Venombloom, which is awesome (despite being unfortunately poison). You also have stuff like Wicked Briars (non-poison) that aren't effects like the insect spells but fit the fantasy of casting and watching your enemies gradually melt - which I take to be the point.

Not quite the talking points I was expecting. First mea culpa: I think I had the idea of people recommending Ghost Heart to escape companions through a combination of fextralife sorta mentioning it, the hate ACs get in threads like this that I've read, and the fact that so many Ranger builds choose GH. But ultimately what I wrote wasn't justified. What I will absolutely stand by is the claim that it is not hard to keep ACs alive. My first character was a Ranger and my antelope did not go down more than other party members even though I was trash at the game. I've played two Rangers since then, most recently a currently mid-level Beastmaster with a lion, and he's fine. I didn't even pick resilient companion because of perk bloat (may try to fit it in later). I just built him for damage and so far this Beastmaster does more damage than a Pathfinder I rolled just before. Also more fun to play. My lion crits 30+ damage with fast attack speed, and I didn't have to forgo a ton of abilities to make him that good. All this is PotD upscaled. I don't know if it's a playstyle issue or what that makes some people struggle with keeping ACs alive, but I can't imagine it's that hard to adjust with a little effort. Just mind enemy aggro and tank properly.

I’m sick and tired, Obsidian Board. Sick and tired of the disrespect Rangers face in this video game. It’s time to publicly record my grievances. I’m going to defend two theses in this post: Rangers are underrated by the community. Obsidian kinda hates Rangers. If I’m persuasive, you should come away from this thinking, “Rangers are really neat” and “Rangers deserved better”. Rangers are underrated When it comes to martial DPS classes, Rangers don’t get much clout. They aren’t recommended much compared to Rogues, Monks, Barbarians, and Fighters, and where they are discussed some core strengths are unacknowledged or undersold, and weaknesses are exaggerated. How important is accuracy really? First thing you tell a new player on PotD is that they need to pump perception so they can actually hit things. Accuracy is king, they say. Meanwhile, Rangers have effortless accuracy bonuses well beyond what other classes are capable of, so why aren’t they the kings? Either accuracy isn’t all that or Ranger aren’t being given the respect they deserve. I hear the objections coming in: “accuracy has diminishing returns after a certain point!” maybe, but do Rangers really go far past that point, especially when tougher enemies can have such high defences? Rangers give you a consistent stream of crits against trash mobs and the ability to maintain damage against higher defense enemies. That’s not just good – it’s great. Objection: “Even if accuracy is so good, it doesn’t matter if the damage isn’t there and Ranger damage can’t compete with something like a Rogue!” This leads us to Rangers get an intrinsic damage bonus! That damage bonus is called an Animal Companion. Every piece of damage your AC does is bonus damage you get for picking a Ranger. If you’re auto-attacking and you hit for 35 and your AC hits for 25 (moderate example), you just did 60 damage by auto attacking. Unlike sneak attack, this damage bonus gets applied whether you are casting or doing weapon damage and targets whoever you want it to. Just because you don’t see a fat red 60 pop up when you hit doesn’t mean that the damage is any less real. People treat ACs as weak because they are thinking of them as full party members instead of as free damage on top of everything else you do. Their damage keeps on at its own pace independent of your own actions and recovery (you are contributing bonus damage even as you cast heals or buffs on a multiclass). They should be compared to stuff like Sneak Attack and Carnage, not Eder. They also have advantages like being used for flanking, blocking enemy movement (off-tanking), and can be buffed with spells to be more effective. Something like Sneak Attack doesn’t have that flexibility. Of course there is a downside too: you need to keep your AC alive or else you lose this advantage and get debuffed on top. But Animal Companions aren’t hard to keep alive! The number of times I’ve seen people recommend using Ghost Heart to ignore the AC altogether is absurd. That’s a core damage bonus of the Ranger class and people will dismissively say it’s “too hard to keep alive – btw check out my unrelated melee class build with 3 RES and 5 CON”. It’s not hard to keep an AC alive. Just heal it, don’t main tank with it, and use common sense. When you get Play Dead it becomes very easy to keep alive even in dicey situations. If you want to use Ghost Heart, use it so you can be much more aggressive with your AC, not just because you don’t like having a pet. In conclusion, Rangers get easy and massive boosts to the supremely important Accuracy stat, in combination with a versatile and significant damage bonus in the form of their animal pal who is not nearly as prone to dying as people are fond of claiming. This community frequently ignores or downplays all these points, leaving Rangers underrated and underappreciated as a damage class. Obsidian kinda hates Rangers As much as I’m a Ranger fan, they can be very frustrating to build and enjoy because of some baffling choices as well as blatant neglect by Obsidian. The Ranger skill tree is ridiculously bloated. Why are there FOUR animal companion perks at level 1, with bonuses as mundane as “do some more damage” and “be tougher”. It’s not like you’re investing in playstyle options with your AC – these are just sucking up ability points to make the AC better in utterly boring ways. Vicious and Resilient Companion shouldn’t exist – these should just be AC base stats. Have us choose the other two. Then there’s the completely unnecessary separation of some perks into two. Why are Protective Companion and Stalker’s Link separate? Why Defensive Bond and Strengthened Bond? Why does Concussive Shot exist? Concussive Tranquilizer is one of the best abilities in the game but you have to spend two points on it by picking an initial ability that’s JUST an interrupt – not even a prone. It’s like Obsidian decided that Rangers shouldn’t be allowed to do much so they force you to waste points on mundane, boring talents that are nonetheless very important. I hate it. Wounding Shot and Arcane Archer imbue spells are permanently broken. Wounding Shot never did nearly as much damage as its description indicated and it still doesn’t. Why wasn’t this fixed? That’s the Ranger’s signature damage ability and it sucks. Imbue spells still don’t scale properly, so they are missing out on damage and penetration that they should have. That’s the subclasses entire thing and Obsidian left it broken even as modders at least patched the penetration. This is just neglectful. Players would be more excited to roll a Ranger if they didn’t feel like they were fighting against the game to build the character how they want and enjoy working abilities. I know I would. Rangers are really neat. Rangers deserve better.

Ancient Druid is your thing 100%, and I would recommend Ancient/Helwalker. I've played a Shifter/Helwalker and most of the time late game I just ended up melting everything with DoTs before I even started shifting. Venombloom, Plague, Infestation, Insect Swarm, Relentless Storm holds them in place as they melt. You can also add Autumn's Decay and Touch of Rot. Helwalker because of the massive might and intellect bonuses you get. It makes a big difference when your Plague is covering the whole screen and each tick is nastier. Even if you graze it lasts a long time, too. Plus your healing is great with bigger and stronger Moonwell. You can also invest in some of the monk's martial stuff and you can use Spiritshift to defend yourself in a tough situation or if you've already casted as much as you want (though you lose the bonus power level damage from Spine of Thicket Green when you shift). You can pick bear form and get Iron wheel, switching to it after your DoTs are already applied (so int doesn't matter) and you've shifted (make sure to shift when you have the INT bonus active). Now you are a tank with nasty melee attacks while everything melts. It gives your play more fun diversity so you don't get too bored of just casting DoT chains.

It's a near-essential perk in my eyes. A significant effectiveness boost for any character wearing armour.

Mindstalker Ydwin is way better than SC Cipher in my experience. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but Time Parasite and so on just can't replace the massive effectiveness she gets from Sneak Attack and Rogue abilities (without needing to set up first). I usually run her with Frostseeker.

Sir, there are war hammers in this game. Including one that hits like thunder.

That does it. I started this game with a Beastmaster when I didn't know what I was doing. It's time to go for it again. Insects/Maggots and Sunlance along with TC will be one new trick in my bag.

I always use Morningstar with Barbarian because of the synergy with the modal and Brute Force + how useful Fort debuff is in general. Plus Morningstar dual damage types and PEN are good, and Willbreaker is a strong weapon.

Fair policy, but if you'll indulge me a bit, the lore for Shadowing Beyond does say that the "invisibility" is a result of the Rogue travelling through the Beyond. If we assume that all "invisibility" effects are similar that could mean that the invisible character is interacting with the world through a kind of one-way window into another dimension. That could explain why they can't be hit at all, except by themselves when they want to be.

The interaction makes sense from a flavour perspective when I think about it. Let's reasonably assume foe-only abilities are so because the caster has conscious control over who they do and do not affect. They wouldn't know where an invisible ally is, so they wouldn't be able to focus their magic (or whatever) on him/her. But the invisible ally knows exactly where they are and would be able to affect him/herself with the magic. Honestly kudos to them if they did extra work because of this in-universe logic. It's nice and balanced too.